For the 2nd straight season, Stephen Curry and his Golden State Warriors are set to clash with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. After completing a historic comeback against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, the Finals rematch with the Cavs begins on Thursday night.

Before the series begins, lets take a look back at the teams respective seasons and their road to the Finals for a second straight year.

Warriors

As we all know, the Warriors finished with a NBA record 73-9 mark in the regular season, breaking the previous record of 72-10 set by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. Led by the three headed monster of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, for most of the season the Warriors set the pace for the rest of the league in many offensive categories.

The Warriors led the league in:

  • Total FG’s made (3489)
  • FG percentage (.487)
  • Three pointers made (1077)
  • Three point percentage (.416)
  • Two point percentage (.528)
  • Defensive rebounds (2972)
  • Assists (2373)
  • Total points (9421)

The offensive dominance that the Warriors showed all season led to many individual accolades as well.

  • Stephen Curry: First ever unanimous league MVP, 1st Team All-NBA, NBA All-Star
  • Draymond Green: 1st Team NBA All-Defense, 2nd Team All-NBA, NBA All-Star, Runner-up for NBA Defensive Player of the Year
  • Klay Thompson: 3rd Team All-NBA, NBA All-Star
  • Andre Iguodala: Runner-up for NBA Sixth Man of the Year
  • Steve Kerr: NBA Coach of the Year

The Warriors ran through the first two rounds of the playoffs, defeating both the Houston Rockets and Portland Trailblazers 4-1. In the Western Finals, they ran into some resistance from the Thunder, falling behind 3-1 before coming back and winning 4-3.

A Historic Comeback And A Familiar Finals: Warriors Huddle Podcast

Cavaliers

The Cavs finished atop the Eastern Conference for the 2nd straight season with a record of 57-25. While the Cavaliers weren’t the offensive juggernaut that the Warriors were, they very much held their own. Finishing in the top-10 in: Field goals, field goal percentage, three pointers made, three point percentage, two point percentage, total rebounds, and total points.

While the team as a whole didn’t garner as much praise as the the Warriors did, LeBron James continued his string of dominant play. He was named again to the 1st Team All-NBA, finished third in MVP voting and was named to the NBA All-Star Team for a 12th time.

In the Eastern Conference playoffs, the Cavaliers were met with little resistance through the first two rounds, sweeping both the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks. They brought their playoff record to 10-0 before losing two games away to the Toronto Raptors. However, the Cavs quickly righted their ship as they won the next two games and took the series 4-2

Head-to-Head

In the two games contested between the teams this season, the Warriors prevailed in both winning 89-83 on Christmas and 132-98 three weeks later. But, those two games do not tell the whole story as last season in the finals, without Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, LeBron put in a Herculean effort.

While we know what LeBron and Steph bring, it’s the players around them that will be a deciding factor in whether the Larry O’Brien trophy will reside in Oakland again, or in Cleveland.

This Finals matchup will certainly bring lots of shooting along with it as both teams have an affinity for the long ball.

Whatever happens in the Finals, the result will be historic. Stephen Curry and the Warriors can repeat as champions and close the book on what would be the greatest season in NBA history. On the other hand, LeBron could finally bring a championship to Cleveland for the first time in more than half a century and exorcise the demons that have followed him since “The Decision”.

With a possible 7 games left in the season, the series opens Thursday night at Oracle Arena at 6 PM PT.